The home to many prominent corporate headquarters — including those of Starbucks, Nordstrom, Microsoft and Amazon.com — Seattle is Washington state’s largest city and the region’s major economic, cultural and educational center. While the cost of living is a little on the high side, our #6 city has a particularly promising job outlook in alternative energy development and software engineering.

Bonus fun fact: Seattle buys more sunglasses per capita than any city in the US.